Striker Arif Mahmood showed a fine marksmanship to slam hattrick, as Pakistan thrashed Bhutan by a record 7-0 in their last group match of Bangabandhu SAFF Championship on Tuesday at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.
Pakistan, who began their campaign with a solitary goal defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka despite playing a better football and made a 0-0 draw with the hosts Bangladesh, crushed the lowly Bhutan in all departments. Besides three goals from Arif Mahmood, captain Essa struck twice, Shabbir and Ashafq added one each to join in the goal feast.
Pakistani captain Essa opened the floodgate in the 22nd minute and just two minutes later Ashfaq made it double taking the advantage of the dubious Bhutan’s defence, who conceded three more goals in the first half (2-0).
It was something interesting that Bhutan, despite conceding goals one after another they did not at all care about their defence when they played the full first half with four defenders and also tried to overlap very often leaving behind the defence open.
However, the Pakistani, who were very much crazy after having only one point from two matches, continued their assaults against the tournament underdogs.
Hattrick man Arif opened his account in the 28th minute, receiving a ball from counter attack, he entered into the box before beating the opponents goalkeeper (3-0) and doubled his tally in the 36th minute, while Shabbir closed the first half score-sheet (5-0) in the dying minutes of the session.
Considering the first half result it looked that Pakistan were going to make a record margin win but Bhutan this time fortified their defence and allowed the Pakistani to score only two more goals.
Captain Essa scored his second and the sixth for the team in the 54th minute while Arif completed his hattrick in the 67th minute to end the goal galore (7-0).